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Monthly Archives: May 2014

If you’re looking for a website like Reddit only better, I think I have found something for you.

Now before I just post the link let me explain a few things.

Firstly I understand the appeal of Reddit, and a massive part of the addictive value is the comment system. On Reddit virtually any kind of content you can think of gets posted, having the ability to comment on what you’re looking at is massively empowering.

There are 2 main elements to this.

1. If you did not like the content you can vent off some steam. This gives you an outlet, and since Reddit is popular you get a sense of justice by posting your disagreements in a place you can be sure people will read what you’ve said. Likewise you can also post positive remarks or even gratitude.

2. Having a karma systems means you can gauge if you’re inline or understood with your peers. For people on Reddit, having highly rated comments or posts makes them feel loved and special. Having negative comments, well you figure it out.

Now I’m mentioning this because I know how you might think it is important that you get into discussions with others over a variety of topics, but I want you to really be objective about those discussions. Are they really that helpful or useful or has Reddit of late become nothing more than a troll pit?

What I am finding lately is that no matter what you comment on, you always find some smart ass trying to be one better than you, or someone trying to point out flaws, often completely missing the point.

For example, you might make a statement like “I like driving with sunglasses on” and some dumb shit Redditor will say something like “Driving at night is better because there are less cars on the road and you don’t need sunglasses”, this is exactly how Reddit is, full of pseudo intellectuals who actively go around trying to outsmart you.

Mostly I find Redditors think they’re super smart, often (mostly) missing the entire point of what you’re actually saying, even though it wasn’t that hard to figure out and to be fair there’s a lot of nastiness going on there.

All in all, you need to ask yourself, in the long term what are you really getting out of the site. Do you really want to put up with the jerks who are trying to outsmart you. Do you really need to live with it, or is there a better place on the net.

For starters you need to learn to stop looking for validation from others. If you can do this, then you’re ready to leave Reddit. If you want to discuss every small little find with others, well there are very few places to discuss such things on the net.

I’m saying, put behind the discussion mentality, since there isn’t much personal value in it.

Next thing I would like to discuss is that Reddit is an aggregator, so it doesn’t produce original content, except for text posts which all fall in discussion land. Whatever you’ve found on Reddit comes from somewhere else, perhaps even more specific sites.

Once you’ve stripped away the need for discussion, you’re much more free to roam and enjoy the net. Most net discussions aren’t worth a damn and you might think you’re being proactive by participating, but since there are so many people discussing things, it is likely more than enough will express your view point and there is no need to get your hands dirty too, unless ofc you’re after validation. Just remember every time you post your point of view you’re at risk of some jerk coming along who wants to wipe that smile off your face. Why even bother? Make real friends, and discuss stuff with them, not with strangers on the net.

If you’re after videos, then liveleak has a lot of the content you’ll find on Reddit anyways, only you’ll get it sooner and with much less reposts. Or just become a Youtube explorer, I mean instead of being passive, be more active and explore Youtube for content you’re actually interested in.

If you’re after tech reports, Reddit technology is all about being paranoid, there are much better tech sites out there focusing only on tech, and so once again pull that first hand and leave the discussion for the peanut gallery.

I can assure you this will not be “just another rage quit”. There are many aspects of Anarchy Online that I love and in many ways I’ve learnt more since being back, and had a more diverse experience than the first time around.

You see my initial toon started in 2007 had originally been froob and joined a very helpful org early on. I had really enjoyed playing that soldier but if I must be honest then a lot of my gaming experience was hand held by more experienced org mates. Especially when it came to questing and getting gear, and not forgetting getting twinked.

I still enjoyed myself immensely with that initial soldier and did eventually level him up to become a very well twinked 220 with almost all the bells and whistles. Except alphas perhaps and a BOC.

When I initially left the game I had gotten to the point where I was just flat out bored. I had done all the instances, farmed all the times I wanted from the new Xan experience. I was logging on and had almost no aim or purpose. The org I was in was changing and my good friend in the game started getting grumpy.

I had over stayed my welcome and it was time to leave. So without much ado I stopped playing my account and for about 5 years I didn’t look back much. At times I would check out the forums to see if there was any progress with the new engine and yet nothing ever materialised.

In the meantime I continued to play a considerable amount of games, I upgraded my computer and got lost in all the good titles I could find. I had come to enjoy the single player experience. A solid rush of polished game experience and once all the good stuff was extracted it was time to swiftly move on.

I played through games like Skyrim once. Not focusing too much on side quests. Just playing the main bits and getting short term pleasure. And once I was done, there was a seemingly unlimited amount of games out there to keep me busy.

From time to time I got stuck on one title or another. I remember playing Fallout New Vegas extensively and Age of Empires online. I wasn’t limited to genre nor too invested in just one title.

The sometime around 5 months ago I got an invite to try out the new beta. As it turns out, I never did get a real invite, and the email was more of a fishing hook trying to catch a few old players. I rolled a froob and believe it or not, once again a soldier. Thinking I would go for a stroll around, checking for old org mates and just pure nostalgic value.

The game had changed here and there, and I guess I started seeing the game in a new light. I reinstated my main account, and got really into a new org. Within no time I was promoted to SC, and had a few good org mates.

At around this time I rolled a new MA, specifically for S10, since lately without a S10 twink you don’t stand a hope in hell of making any real credits. S10 is a gold mine, no other instance in the game even comes close to the earning potential.

My MA alone could farm the relays, but I needed to be self reliant. It wasn’t too long then before I rolled an Engi. The engi turned out to be a massive amount of fun to play, after having learnt how to cast bots 2-3 times my level. Honestly what a blast. Now I could build my own relays.

Still just being able to farm and build relays didn’t leave the picture complete. One still needed to kill the boss, and that would require a team. My org mate rolled a tank, and I with help managed to level up a Doc in 3 days to 150, twinked and ready. Able to CH and although the first pb was a wipe, the 2nd one and subsequent 10 were not – life was good.

I continued farming and got the MA very nicely setup with living dragon body 450m and slippers 350m. I picked up a crit scope from HI, and a 4/5 prisoners robe. IS for attacks and after upgrading the symbs the MA was more than capable.

More work on the Engi.

But somewhere over the past 2 weeks I’ve just lost interest. There is just no true incentive for me to play anymore. I can’t see any real decent progress on the horizon. The beta will take another year (at least) maybe two before it becomes a public reality, even then the new engine isn’t revolutionary, and besides some performance tweaks, the game will still be clunky.

Don’t get me wrong, I would still highly recommend the AO experience to anyone unfamiliar with the game, but I really think for now I’ve exhausted nearly every drop of fun out of the game.

It’s sad in a way, such a great game with such amazing potential which is becoming stagnant. I wonder if all MMO experiences end this way.